OK, you’ve reached your weight loss goal. Congratulations—you’re halfway there! Now all you have to do is make sure you’re one of the 5-10% of “weight-losers” who manage to keep it off over time. So, what are you going to do now? You probably have more questions than answers. Is it OK to stop tracking calories every day? How much more can you eat? Can you cut back on exercise? How often should you weigh yourself? How do you know if you’ve really made the kind of “lifestyle change” that will make your weight loss permanent? And most importantly, what does it really take to maintain your weight loss?

Coming up with the right answers—for you—to these and related questions is not always easy. There is no one-size-fits-all approach, and what works in one set of circumstances may change as circumstances change. To give yourself the best chance of keeping the weight off for good, you’ll need to understand what can make this so hard to do. The challenges of weight management involve both biological and psychological factors.In a series of three articles, we’ll take a look at the most common and significant challenges you're likely to run into, along with some of the strategies that successful dieters (those who have maintained their weight loss over time) have used to meet them. (This article focuses on biological challenges, while the next two will examine some of the habits of thought associated with both failure and success.)

The Set Point Problem

Some people start regaining weight simply because they start eating a little bit more and exercising a little less, often without even noticing it. But let’s assume you’ve really taken to heart the idea of a permanent lifestyle change—does this mean you can expect smooth sailing? Sadly, no. For many, the biggest and most difficult challenge of keeping the weight off may be the fact that your body thinks you have lost too much weight, and is determined to put at least some of it back on.

One of the leading theories about obesity and weight management, called the set point theory, tells us that every individual has a natural weight—i.e., a weight that your body will try to return to and maintain whenever you have lost weight. Actually, it is a bit misleading to call your set point weight a “natural” weight, since this implies that if you gain a little weight, the natural tendency would be to drop back down again to your normal weight. In fact, gaining weight—especially quite a bit of weight—appears to raise your set point substantially, while losing weight does not automatically lower it again. If you have always gained weight easily, have a history of obesity, and/or especially if you have had to struggle with weight plateaus, food cravings, and increased appetite, you should expect that keeping it off is going to require some special attention on your part.

Your body will likely try to put on some of the weight you have lost. It accomplishes this with a complex set of metabolic adjustments that will cause you to gradually gain weight even though you are maintaining what should be—on paper—a balance between calories ingested and calories expended. Hardly seems fair, right? If you were living 40,000 years ago, before agriculture, supermarkets, and fast food, you would have been one of the “lucky” ones whose genes made you a lot more likely to survive hard times. But these days…well, you get the idea.

The good news is that it is NOT impossible to maintain your weight loss, and that you do not need to become an expert in metabolic biochemistry and food analysis, or eat rabbit food for the rest of your life. However, research has identified 3 strategies for managing set point problems:

Know your caloric target for weight maintenance.

The first step towards lowering your set point weight and getting your body to cooperate with weight maintenance is to calculate how many calories you can theoretically eat every day to maintain your present weight. A simple way to figure this out is to again go through the SparkPeople goal set-up process, the way you did when you first started out. Only this time, enter your current weight as both your starting weight and your goal weight, and enter your current exercise routine as the amount of exercise you will be doing. The recommended calorie intake you get is what you should need to maintain your current weight at your current activity level, assuming no set point problems.

Work up (or down) to this calorie intake gradually.

Don’t just assume you can start eating at this maintenance level right away. You need to experiment a little until you figure out what your metabolism will let you get away with. The best approach is to increase your daily calorie intake by 150-200 calories (from healthy, low-fat food sources, of course) for one week, and watch the effect that has on your weight. If you continue to lose weight, or your weight holds steady, do the same thing again for another week, and continue doing this until you either reach your estimated maintenance target, or you start gaining weight. Obviously, you will want to continue (or restart) daily recording of your calories and exercise during this period to keep things accurate, and if you have stopped weighing yourself frequently, you may want to start doing that again as well.

3.Exercise, Exercise, Exercise.

By far the most important factor in maintaining weight loss, according to the research, is a consistently high level of regular activity and exercise. Basically, you need to convince your body that storing energy as fat to protect against potential food shortages in the future is not a smart strategy because the food supply is adequate and you need that energy NOW to keep up with the physical demands of your present environment. Most likely, you will need to increase the intensity and/or duration of your exercise and other daily activity above what you did during the weight loss phase, so that your caloric expenditure stays a little higher than your maintenance level calorie intake (as determined above). Continued ›

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About The Author

Dean Anderson
Dean Anderson has master's degrees in human services (behavioral psychology/stress management) and liberal studies. His interest in healthy living began at the age of 50 when he confronted his own morbid obesity and health issues. He joined SparkPeople and lost 150 pounds and regained his health. Dean has earned a personal training certification from ACE and received training as a lifestyle and weight management consultant.
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Member Comments

Kind of like knee replacement. You are out of it and it doesn't hurt but then you wake up. Then you go to rehab, then they bend your knee back and push down on it so the surgery alone doesn't do it Takes a lot of exercise and a lot of pain until you are well again.
- 5/4/2014 2:32:33 PM

My husband has been a proponent of the set point theory for a long time. Having lost weight 3 different times now....:( I agree with the theory. There are definitely weights my body seems to cling to. Breaking through these set points is a lot harder now that I am older. I have been stuck at this one since last June. Increase exercise. That's the big message I got from this article. I also realize that I have a dangerous mentality: when I reach my weight loss goal, I'm done. Cross weight loss off my to do list, and move on. I suspect what he said is accurate. Losing the weight is just half the battle.
- 2/20/2014 8:08:14 AM

I've learned that I can't wait for tomorrow or forThe Holiday's to become over, every month there is holiday and tomorrow never comes. So if I track and do what I'm to do everyday good things will happen everyday.
- 12/26/2010 4:26:38 PM

I got this article from a recommendation on a SparkTeams forum, and it was amazing! I was trying to see if I could maintain my weight with LESS exercise and watching my diet, and that doesn't seem to be the case. Not to mention, I just feel better exercising more. Now I get it.

I will save this article also. 2 years ago I had reached my maintenance weight and kept it off until just a few months ago. Because of a lot of back and hip pain I have not been able to exercise and the cravings have come back. I have now gained back 12 pounds and continue to struggle with food. This article helps me to understand and I hope when I get back to maintenance I will know how to keep it off.
- 2/21/2010 5:24:16 PM

I´m struggling with maintaining my weight for the tenth time in my life. I´m good at losing the weight, as I´ve managed to do it once again, but I´m super bad at keeping it off! This article is GREAT, still I don´t know what to do as regards my food intakes!!!
- 2/9/2010 1:21:13 PM

Excellent article. As one who has been a yo-yo dieter all of my adult life, this helps clarify the weight regain issues I've battled with. "If you were living 40,000 years ago, before agriculture, supermarkets, and fast food, you would have been one of the “lucky” ones whose genes made you a lot more likely to survive hard times." What were once lucky genes are now a modern metabolic hurdle. Adapt and overcome!
- 10/18/2009 8:12:05 AM

I too had to save this article. The part about burning sugar instead of fat and craving the "not so great nutrition" foods really has hit home...I have been on maintenance for about 5 months. Some days, my cravings are almost out of control. My weight fluctuates up and down about 3 lbs. While this isn't so bad, I really feel the need for hyper vigilance. I have been at goal before and then went way up and know how hard it is to start again.. The artile explains alot. Thanks.
- 5/2/2009 1:33:46 PM

I HAD to save this article. It is so full of good information I will need to re-read it a couple of times to make sure I fully understand it. I've had a crazy, crazy health year and I am sure my body still really doesn't know what is happening to it. Lots and lots of medical issues and they all affected my digestive system. My stomach is still wondering why it was so squished up for so long! I'll have to carefully keep on top of my intake and exercise to ensure my entire system gets back to a real state of normal. Whatever that is!!

i have been getting close to my target weight and gaining back the pounds i lost with the additional 10% for the past 6 years (i reached my target weigt 5 times and im close to no 6 now)!!! everyone would ask me why did i gain back the weight reality is i felt my body needs for carbs and sugar increasing.. i was craving them so much that i would eventually stop resisting and give in to what it wants!! my body is determined to get back to the set point weight.. if i only knew back then!!
- 12/8/2008 4:36:51 PM

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